The Water Walker

by Peter Jonnes

I’ve always been fascinated with Grandpa’s inventiveness. Of all his interests and traits, I think we connected the most through our shared interest of invention. I don’t know how many of the grandchildren remember the days when he would have some invention he was working on, but those were some of my fondest memories. I think our shared interest reached a whole new level when I was probably around 11 or 12 years old. I was visiting Grandma and Grandpa during summer vacation and much to my delight he had a new invention and I was just in time to test it for him. There in his garage was the most amazing creation I had ever seen, The Water Walker.

The water walker was an engineering marvel to me, a wooden platform a few feet wide, 4-5 feet long and about 6 inches high, it had two tracks much like an exercise machine that simulates walking on skis, in the front, a single pole with a handle at the top. I stepped up onto the tracks, gripped the handle and began sliding one track back while the other slid forward. Underneath I could hear something brushing along the garage floor when I slid the tracks. We tipped it over on its side and below the tracks where 6-8 flaps evenly spaced along the length of the sliding track. He explained the flaps could fold back flush against the wood but stayed perpendicular to the board when sliding back. He explained that we would take it to the lake and set it in the water. I was to stand on it and move my legs back and forth, causing the flaps to glide through the water with a forward slide, but come down and produce propulsion with each back slide.

I could barely contain my excitement immediately envisioning walking across the lake to my hearts content. So we lugged the greatest water toy of all time down to the lake and prepared to chart a course into history. Now, why we chose to do this test at that particular time I have no idea because I remember it was rather cool, overcast and ridiculously windy. Undaunted however, we set it in the water and it floated. The challenge was over, it was now time to enjoy the invention; I stepped aboard immediately capsizing the walker completely submerging myself. After Grandpa stopped laughing, I tried a few more times getting more comfortable with balancing such a top heavy, insanely narrow floatation device in choppy waters and heavy winds. I managed to stand up on it and began sliding the tracks back and forth like a 3am infomercial for cheap exercise equipment. With heavy winds and no sun, I struggled to stay balanced and was now shivering uncontrollably in my wet clothes. Grandpa, shouting out instruction from the shore as if the problem was me battling gravity, wind and water incorrectly, and not the walker itself.

Nevertheless, I worked the tracks as forcefully as I could and began to move. I put my head down and moved them faster, I could feel myself moving and was getting excited. After a few seconds of this I looked up to see Grandpa smiling purely from the entertainment value of watching me try and walk on the water but being about the same distance from him now as when I started. In the end we figured it was moving but not enough to overcome the wind. We pulled the water walker out of the lake and took it back up to the house. I could tell he was disappointed but I think he enjoyed watching me try to use it so much, that it made up for the lack of success. I believe he made some modifications and had his next victim Jake try it later that summer but I’m not sure.

Generally, he was impatient and became frustrated easily if things didn’t work as planned. But he also had a side which he didn’t openly show often; joy in seeing others share his same level of excitement. The water walker experiment is one of my favorite memories of the two of us. One of those rare moments where the experience was the enjoyment rather than the outcome.